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The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Show kicks off in New York City next week, and the stakes are high.While celebrities are awash with event invitations, fashion bloggers and lesser-known magazine editors are busy scrounging, begging and scraping the bottom of the barrel to secure just the tiniest piece of coverage. Some designers are known for their disdain of bloggers, but others have embraced the new wave of journalism, with key players such as Chanel, Dior and Rodarte inviting their biggest fans to sit front row.

Recently Fashionista posted about how much celebrities get paid to sit in the front row of a fashion show. It’s all pretty revealing. Obviously having a celebrity or fashion icon at your event is a huge coup, but does finding out that someone has been paid to attend take the gloss off a little bit? The fashion industry and all things related to celebrity are clearly driven by economics, but what happened to just going to an event to show your support? On the other hand, celebrities are obviously busy with a slew of paid gigs, and thus need to be goaded in one way or another, whether by publicity, free clothing or cold hard cash. It’s such a different world. Would you ever have to be paid to be enticed to attend a fashion event? What are your thoughts on the situation?

Here’s how it breaks down…

A-List:

Rihanna ($100,000 or more)
Beyonce ($80,000-$100,000)
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen ($80,000 each)
Julianne Moore ($60,000)
Maggie Gyllenhaal ($60,000)
Chloe Sevigny ($60,000 or more)
Jennifer Lopez (circa 2005: $80,000; circa 2010: $30,000)
Lindsay Lohan (circa 2006: $60,000; circa 2010; UNINVITED)

B-List:

Blake Lively ($50,000)
Leighton Meester ($40,000)
Hillary Duff ($40,000)
Other Gossip Girl cast members ($25,000 a piece)
Jared Leto ($25,000)
Clive Owen ($10,000)
Kristen Bell (unpaid, but airfare, makeup & clothing are taken care of)

C-List:

Kim Kardashian ($35,000-$50,000)
Amanda Bynes ($25,000-$30,000)
Eliza Dushku (unpaid, but airfare, makeup & clothing are taken care of)

Words by Gala Darling, Photos Courtesy of Nina Westervelt

2.29 (14 votes)

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